Galveston considers geotextile tubes to fight beach erosion

Aug 22, 2023

Reporter

This article should have referred to David Green as the deputy director of coastal resources at the Texas General Land Office.

GALVESTON

City officials are planning ways to use sand-filled tubes to encourage dune growth and fortify West End beaches against storm surge and erosion.

The use of geotextile tubes, which are long bags made of a permeable fabric that hold sand, is highly regulated by the Texas General Land Office, which gives approval for what it considers to be hard structures on the beach. The tubes often are referred to as sand socks.

Galveston officials in a July 27 meeting learned the land office is amenable to the use of geotextile tubes, which the city hopes to implement throughout the West End in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ $34 billion Coastal Texas Project, known locally as the Ike Dike.

“Until this point, they wanted to use natural dunes,” Mayor Craig Brown said Wednesday.

“The land office doesn’t look favorably on building hard structures on the beach, and we wanted to clarify that these aren’t hard structures,” Brown said. “And the land office admits Geotubes have a place and there are guidelines for that.”

The land office recently approved the use of geotextile tubes in front of Riviera Condos, 11949 Termini-San Luis Pass Road, which could be installed soon, David Green, deputy director of coastal resources at the land office, said at the July meeting.

Geotextile tubes are considered structures on the beach and the land office in the past has had issues with them breaking down and being difficult to clean up, Green said.

Officials must consider how much sand is placed on top of and in front of the sand socks — because not placing enough could increase erosion in the area, Green said.

The land office has a preference for natural dune systems, but there are many scenarios in which it approves the use of geotextile tubes, Green said.

Individual homeowners’ associations could end up footing the bill to fill the so-called sand socks, and the city could pay for a portion of the cost to fill them in with sand, according to the land office.

The city has a few examples of where geotextile tubes have been placed on beaches to great success, Councilman David Collins said.

The site of the city’s greatest need actually is quite close to its greatest success story, which is the dune system in front of Beachside Village, 3711 Grand Ave., Collins said.

Beachside Village developers installed geotextile tubes in front of the development about 20 years ago. And the dune system that grew from it has protected the first phase of the residential development through a series of hurricanes in 2020, Austin Reinhart, general contractor and developer, said.

“We would love to extend as far east as we can,” Reinhart said. “Because it acts as a natural dune, it tends not to cause unnatural erosion like some man-made things can do.”

Beachside Village is in its 20th year and it hasn’t lost a foot of beachfront area largely thanks to the geotextile tubes, Reinhart said.

The Beachside Village geotextile tubes cost somewhere in the mid-six-figure range, Reinhart said. The city could end up paying anywhere between $150 to $300 per linear inch of geotextile tubes, Councilwoman Marie Robb, who represents the West End, said.

“But that’s a lot less expensive than replacing infrastructure,” Robb said Wednesday. “That’s the whole point.”

This article should have referred to David Green as the deputy director of coastal resources at the Texas General Land Office.

B. Scott McLendon: 409-683-5241; [email protected]

Reporter

This is a great option when we can't use solid structures. But there are a few downsides. Geotubes can get damaged by sharp objects and stop working as well as breakwaters if the filling material spills out. Also, single-line geotube breakwaters might not hold up well against huge waves. Still seems like the best option available.

I am looking forward to hearing more about this.

Seaweed encourages dune growth but some don't like the look nor the smell.

We have moved away from rock groins which have proven to be successful since the 1930s. We spend millions and millions on renourishments which erode faster than natural beaches, babes beach is still eroding. Why don’t we harder our shorelines with more rock groins which capture the littoral drift of sediment? Breakwaters are a bad idea and can cause beaches to be unusable with debris after storms and studies back that up. Some of these proposed solutions don’t work, we should go back to the basics. Rock groins with T Heads.

Are we Galveston homeowners going to have to pay for Geotubes in front of private property? Access to the beaches is becoming more and more difficult these days. We should not have to finance this project if we don't have access to beach in front of homes on the west end. I'm 80 on my next birthday but I still want to be able to use the beach I pay to support.

Peoples memories must be short. Geo tubes have been used before in Galveston and were present on the beach in front of several areas from the end of the seawall to Pirates Peach. Please get on Google earth pro and look at the historic satellite images taken the days before and after Hurricane Ike. Most Geo tubes were badly damaged or destroyed and there was much devastation to property in spite of their presence.

When you read garret in the below narrative you should read Robb instead. The only difference between Marie Garret of 2009 and the Marie Robb if today is that her political career is better funded. You should know the plan was implemented, was a disaster hastening erosion around the hotels and coastal solutions was banned from padre island

“On April 15, 2009 Marie Garrett, CEO of Coastal Solutions out of Galveston, Texas, presented her company's idea to address the erosional hotspot between Travel Lodge and Andy Bowie Park on the northern part of the Town of South Padre Island. Other than a few general articles that have been written about it and wrongly dubbing it an "artificial reef" there really has not been much said. I am going to attempt to put what I have found out in this post along with some of my concerns and opinions.

At the Board of Aldermen meeting (starts at 8:30 on timing bar) in which she presented her project proposal she showed what she wanted to do. Basically her company will install a series of geo-textile tubes below the surface of the water that will theoretically slow down the littoral current and create structures for sand to accumulate around and build out the beach. This system which she terms as the Coastal Erosion Mitigation System (CEMS) is being sold as an equalizing and not a terminal groin field. Truth be told it can also be classified as a submerged breakwater.

The layout, starting at the Travel Lodge and ending at Andy Bowie Park, is made up of 4 geotubes perpendicular to the beach approximately 500 ft. long spaced 1600 ft. apart with 4 separated t-heads at the end of them approximately 300 ft. long with 250 ft. long intermediate tubes in between each of the main structures to create a whirlpool current to encourage sand retention. Each tube is 4 feet wide by 2 feet high and takes about 1/3 of a cubic yard of sand to fill. The theory behind this system is that sand will fill within each cell until it reaches the top of the geotube and then any sand after that will continue downstream to beaches north. The intended end result would be a wider stable beach.

Where does this project stand, how much will it cost and will it work?

This is actually Coastal Solutions second proposed project on the Texas Gulf Coast with the other being at Surfside Village up near Galveston. The project there is essentially the same concept with the same hopeful outcome. At the April 15 SPI BOA meeting Ms. Garrett claimed that the Surfside project was in the process of being contracted out and that the Texas General land Office was going to fund 100% of the $1.2 million project. However, after speaking with the GLO this does not seem to be the complete truth. As of now, the GLO is talking with Coastal Solutions and looking into the proposal but has very little in the way of details from Coastal Solutions. As far as funding the entire project without requiring matching funding, there are some bills that have yet to clear the Texas Legislature that would make this possible. Currently, the GLO can only completely fund one beach fill project per CEPRA Cycle which is biannual. If approved by the GLO this would be classified as a demonstrative project and subject to extensive monitoring and possible removal if the project is not considered effective.”

Don. There is nothing done on the beach side on the west end that the owners don’t have the federal, state or HOA members pay for in

My experience. Then, the products are almost always used to limit beach access

Ooops. I stand corrected. My wife reminded me that the illegal “No Parking” signs in front of private homes near access points are probably paid for by the homeowner before thay are caught and removed

Geotubes are a ok fit for areas of beach accretion, like the East end, but will end up requiring constant sand renourishment on the West end, where the beach front is regressing. Of course, taxpayers willing to pay for sand for ever is an expectation I am always surprised by, but so far, it has worked.

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